Swedish researchers have suggested that weight loss surgery reduced obese patients’ 10-year risk of getting type 2 diabetes by 80 percent. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers followed, for 15 years, over 3,400 obese men and women who had surgery and those who did not. None of the patients were diabetic at the start of the study.
Sixty-nine percent of the patients had stomach stapling, 19 percent had gastric banding and 12 percent had gastric bypass.
Patients who underwent surgery lost about 44 pounds. The non-surgery group ate healthier and exercised more, but stayed only within three seven pounds of their starting weight.